A chain of medical centres that advertises its bulk-billing services requires patients to sign up for an online rewards program or pay out-of-pocket fees, a Choice investigation has found.
The Our Medical chain, which is privately owned by Cornerstone Health and operates 33 medical, dental and radiology clinics along the east coast, launched its own patient rewards program this year.
Signing up to the rewards program is free and it offers benefits including a free flu vaccine and $20 vouchers for dental and physio, but Choice alleges it requires patients to hand over personal data.
The chain promotes bulk-billing prominently on its website, referring to “bulk billing quality GPs” and “Bulk billing made exceptional”.
“We believe that everyone has the right to quality healthcare, when, where and how they need it,” the website says.
Kate Bower, a consumer data advocate at Choice, said the investigation was instigated after the consumer organisation was contacted by two regular patients at different Our Medical practices who were asked to sign up or pay fees for appointments.
“People shouldn’t be forced to choose between their privacy or getting help when they’re sick,” Bower said.
“Instead, we’re hearing from people who have tried to book an appointment at an Our Medical clinic, only to be told they have to sign up for the rewards program or pay a $90 out-of-pocket fee to see a doctor,” Bower said.
Choice said it was concerned about people being “pushed into” using the app to access an essential service, and that Our Medical made clear it shared data with a number of entities and third parties, including for marketing and research purposes.
“We think that those policies are much, much too vague for patients to really understand [how] their data is going to be used … or give them any control over how it may be used,” Bower said.
The terms and conditions of the rewards program state that it “uses and discloses information” about the member in accordance with Our Medical’s privacy policy. The privacy policy, which says it complies with Australian privacy law, states that personal information collected on individual patients can be used “to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties”.
It can also be used “for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of Cornerstone, its contractors or service providers”.
A spokesperson for Cornerstone Health told Guardian Australia: “Our Medical has not and will not ever use personal data for commercial purposes or share it with third parties for financial gain.
“No additional information is captured within this rewards program than in a usual patient registration process.”
The spokesperson said capturing accurate and up-to-date personal information was “one of the significant challenges of healthcare … to enable us to do that, we’re putting it in the hands of the patient”.
The app allowed patients to check in for a GP consultation and access eScripts, results and referrals, they said.
“We handle all personal information in accordance with relevant privacy and health records legislation. Our privacy policy includes reference to direct communication with patients including for feedback purposes.”
A spokesperson for Cornerstone Health told Choice the Our Medical app had been rolled out over the past nine months.
“There is no obligation on privately owned medical centres or practitioners to provide general practice medical services on a bulk-billing basis,” the spokesperson said.
“However, general practice medical services are available on a bulk-billing basis at Our Medical to patients who have joined the rewards program. General practice medical services are available on a private billing basis to all other patients.”
The chief executive of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, Dr Elizabeth Deveny, said the model was concerning on grounds of equity.
“For people on low incomes or pensions, many of whom would be eligible for bulk-billing at most GP clinics, this approach raises serious questions about equity and accessibility of services.”
Jeannie Paterson, a professor of law at the University of Melbourne and co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics, told Choice the practice of charging patients more if they did not join the rewards program was probably not illegal but was “ethically outrageous”.
Paterson said she believed patients would not expect their data to be used for research and marketing when they signed up for a medical service.
Bower said Choice had similar concerns about data collection of fertility and period tracking as well as mental health apps.
“I think this is part of a broader trend where people who are trying to access essential health and wellbeing services are being incentivised, or sometimes forced, into sharing more data than they’re comfortable with just in order to use the service,” Bower said.
